I am Francis J. D'Amico, Jr.,  The only son of the man known as "Babe" to most,  and I am VERY proud to bear his name.  Now, I am sure many of you have always wondered how my Father go that nickname "Babe".  But first, I'll have to start with my nickname.  "Chip"

    Moments after I was born, a nurse told my Mother that she finally gave birth to that "Chip off the old block you have been trying for”, this, after birthing 3 girls in the previous four years. Ever since, I was nicknamed “Chip”.

Now my father, I was told, was not too happy with that name for me, as he had been nicknamed 'Baby” when he was born. He was the seventh child and 'Baby' of his family, and quite frankly they had run out of family names, and didn't know what to name him. So, for a while they just called him 'Baby'! As he grew, of course, 'Baby' just didn't seem right, so it got slightly changed to 'Babe'. So there you have it. The mystery of the BABE is solved!

As an adult, I often told Babe, that he was my Father, my Mentor, my Hero. Now to me he was all of those. But I never really knew what the Legal definition of “HERO' was. So this past week, I looked it up. The 2007 Burton's Legal dictionary defines “HERO” , in shortened version so as not to bore everyone:: as: A

“brave person, champion, fearless soldier, great man, guardian, idol, man of courage, man of valor, pillar of the community, protector, or a person who serves as a shining example”.

Indeed, That pretty much describes the man whom we honor and remember here today, and whom I tried to emulate and follow in the footsteps of. That is, once I learned the lessons he was trying to teach me as I grew up and “the light bulb finally came on”. I made many mistakes as I was growing up. Did things and said things I later wished I could have taken back. But trying to be like my Father, was definitely not one of those mistakes!

I will always remember the day I got the letter from the State of New York giving me my test score for the Police officers civil service exam. My score was 76, and I was very disappointed because, again, I wanted to follow in my fathers footsteps. But, I had really only taken the test to get a feel for it, because I figured there was no way I would get hired at only 20 years of age.

I saw my father later that evening and his first word to me was “congratulations” with a big Babe D'Amico smile. I asked him what he was congratulating me for, and he indicated 'on your civil service test score'. Well, now I was just confused. I said "Dad, I only got a 76 on it", and he replied that he knew that, but the department had received the eligible candidate list and that I had placed tied for 4^th highest score! Now either we were not the smartest group to ever take a civil service test, or, that was an exceptionally hard test. I have always chosen to believe the hard test theory.

Well, after the selection process, I did become a Geneva Police Officer......putting on the proverbial (and actual) shoes of a man I call "HERO", and I tried to 'follow in his footsteps' the best I could for the next 20 years, and will for the rest of my life.

Good bye my Father, my Mentor, my HERO.  You will not be far from my thoughts every day of my life.  Until with Gods grace we meat again,

and in a slightly modified term of endearment my father would use when he was proud of something one of his children had done,

 Dad,  U DUN  --- EXCEPTIONALLY --- GOOD,  WE IS  -- ETERNALLY -- PROUD. 

06-09-1934 to 01-14-2015 Francis J. D'Amico, Sr.                                                                                01-24-2015